Williams Equities signs $65M refi with 3650 REIT for office in Turtle Bay

Williams Equities through the entity 304 E. 45th LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender 3650 REIT through the entity 3650 Real Estate Investment Trust 2 LLC valued at $65 million for nine commercial condos at 304 East 45th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 20, 2024 and was recorded on February 27, 2024. The prior lender was John Hancock Life Insurance which held debt that had an original loan amount of $80 million.
The nine units have 258,289 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $251 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatories for Williams Equities were Michael T. Cohen and William E. Stempel. The signatory for 3650 REIT was Toby Cobb.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 304 East 45th Street.

The property

The office condo in Turtle Bay has 258,289 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 110,030 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $31.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the nine buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Turtle Bay, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 9 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Turtle Bay has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $170.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Turtle Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 183,530 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 304 East 45th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 14 commercial properties representing 189,855 square feet of the 1,337,242 square feet. The two identified owners are Kanamori America and Brodsky Organization.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 187,330 square feet. The largest is a 96,501 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Joseph Stavrach with plans filed August 26, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 44-unit, 90,829 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Joseph Stavrach with plans filed February 11, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 69 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Williams Equities owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 113,736 square feet and a city-determined market value of $67.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

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